A priest whom I know knew a little boy who had not often been to church, but who understood the imagery and symbols used in the Church very well.

He went home from church one day. “There were lots of saints,” he said. He had seen stained-glass windows.

“What’s a saint?” asked Dad.

The boy thought for a second. “A saint is someone the light shines through.”

And that’s it! It’s true. Sanctity means that a light shines through us. Like Jesus on Mount Tabor, God takes our soul and throws into it something that is primarily invisible but which, in a thousand mysterious ways, becomes visible in our body: a visible aspect on our faces, our eyes, our body language, the line of our faces, the brightness and intensity of our eyes. Prayer is interior. But by a divine transfiguration of who and what we are, it is, in some sense, manifest also.

Some related posts:

• Elizabeth of the Trinity: Transfiguration is Possible in the World
• “One Has Only to Look”
• “He Has Only to Look at People…”
• A Visit to Serpahim
• The Trace of Transfiguration from Francis de Sales to Alphonsus Liguori